Elisabeth Withers

I was introduced to this talented artist by one of the members on my Transistahs-Transbrothas group.

Tia had adopted Elisabeth's song 'The World Ain't Ready' from her It Can Happen To Anyone album as her theme song. She told us about her in a post to the group. When I checked out Elisabeth's website and listened to the lyrics of the song, I can see why. I was blown away by it and plan to buy it next payday along with the Daddy's Little Girls DVD when it comes out June 12.

Elisabeth states that the song 'The World Ain't Ready' was inspired by a transgender high school classmate in her Joliet, IL hometown. She recalled in a BET.com interview that she had amazing skin, a woman's body and would dress as a girl at school but as soon as the bell rang would run to the bathroom, change clothes and go home to her family as a boy.

When I heard her last name I immediately made the assumption that she was related to the great Bill Withers, but at this time Elisabeth hasn't revealed whether she is or not. But based on her bio and her Tony Award winning performance as Shug in Braodway's The Color Purple she is poised for stardom. If you're headed to the Essence Fest in New Orleans this year you're in for a musical treat.

Where Have All The Instrumental Songs Gone?

One staple of Black music over the decades has been the slammin' instrumental tracks that populated many R&B records over the 60's and 70's. Whether it was 'Cleo's Mood' by Junior Walker and the All Stars, 'Machine Gun' by The Commodores, 'Q' by the Brothers Johnson, 'Number One' by Patrice Rushen, Chic's 'Savoir Faire' or 'Go For Your Guns' by the Isley Brothers just to name a few, you could count on some R&B or soul album having a funky, slamming instrumental track to groove on or just chill out with.

As I've mentioned before in other posts I have a massive CD collection. One of the things I've noticed over the years is the dearth of instrumental tracks among the new breed of R&B artists similar to what I grew up on in the 70's.

Why is that?

Back in the day music was produced in a recording studio by MUSICIANS who were proud of it. They'd paid their dues, were creative and competitive peeps who liked to stretch out and flex their musical muscles from time to time. They also liked having one or two tracks on a album where they didn't have to sing, they could just simply play.

And boy did they ever.

Nowdays anybody with a computer, great software, a premium quality mike and a quiet room can record. I also think that another reason that you have the dearth of instrumental songs in R&B is because many districts as cost-cutting measures took music education out of public schools during the late 70's. While many R&B artists did get their start in the church choir, it does hurt if what's being taught at church or Vacation Bible School isn't reinforced in a classroom setting at the elementary school level or at home. If they aren't in the church choir, many kids now don't get introduced to music unless they are in the school band or the choir in their middle and high school years. The recording industry also doesn't take time to groom their artists and give them the opportunity to get better in their craft.

As for the home part of my theory, in my neighborhood alone we had three different bands when I was growing up. My across the street neighbor Jared Edison was a drummer in one band who used to gather at his house and practice until 1 AM in the morning. Another neighbor played guitar and the third band was down the street in Kennedy Heights. Talent shows at Thomas Junior High and Sterling High (or any Black high school in Houston) were competitive affairs. The Jackson 5 once competed in one in their hometown of Gary, IN. I would daresay that the situation I observed in Houston replicated itself in many Black communites across the nation.

One tradition I would love to see them bring back is at least one instrumental jam on an R&B/soul groups record. Until then I'll just keep popping my 70's CD's in and hoping the recording companies get the message.

Time To Elevate Our Game

This is a post I wrote for Angelica's blog;

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Back in 1979 an African-American transwoman by the name of Justina Williams graced the pages of Jet magazine.

With classy elegance, despite the trials she was facing at the time, she expressed her hopes for the future on the pages of one of our community's iconic magazines. She helped destroy the myth in the African-American community that transition was just a 'white thang'.

Almost 40 years later Justina has accomplished many of the goals that she'd set for herself, but in terms of the African-American transgender community at large it has been a mixed bag of success and failure.

We have successful transsistahs (and increasingly) transbrothas doing positive things to uplift our community. Unfortunately we don't hear about many of these success stories because they have chosen to live stealth lives. The lack of media coverage of African-American transwomen who are succeeding in other arenas besides the pageant world has led to a skewed impression among our transkids that the only thing they can do or become is an entertainer or an escort.

While the stealth transpeeps are in isolation to avoid the violence directed at transpeople not only in our community but America at large, it is a contributing factor to the skewed impression I talked about in the previous paragragh.

When I was growing up in the 70's how I would have loved to have seen African-American transgender role models like the ones we have now. People such as Jordana, DJ Miss Honey Dijon, Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, Dr. Marisa Richmond, Kylar Broadus, Dawn Wilson, Valerie Spencer, Jada Tracy O'Brien, Dioone Stallworth, Rev. Joshua Holiday, Tracee McDaniel and Angelica Love Ross are emerging as positive role models for our community along with some of our pageant superstars. (okay, I'll toot my own Trinity Award winning horn as well.)

But our work is far from over. While we have more people coming out at earlier ages, we still have to grapple with the old problems of fragmentation and separation based on where we live and what segment of the transgender community we occupy. I can't forget about the violence we face across the African diaspora, whether it's here in the States, Jamaica or the rest of the African continent. 70% percent of the names on the Remembering our Dead list are people of color.

As Public Enemy once rapped, 'It's playoff time.' We must as transpeople of African descent do what our ancestors have always done, tackle problems in our community head on with prayerful contemplation, far sighted vision and maximum effort. We have to do it not only for ourselves but our transkids and our brothers and sisters in the rest of the Diaspora as well. Nobody's gonna care about us but us.

I would like to see African-American transpeople one day successfully running for public office, running businesses and taking more active roles in securing our civil rights. Better yet, if necessary to accomplish our goals as a community, if we encounter resistance from so-called allies, let's cut out the middleman and do it our damned selves.

Those dreams will become realities if we stand up, take pride in ourselves, embrace our proud heritage, our spirituality and boldly step forth to claim our God-given place in society.